Andrew M Brown is the Telegraph's obituaries editor.

Dog poo: Surely you're supposed to chuck it away, not just put it in a bag and abandon it?

Dogs are delightful creatures, but some dog-lovers forget to dispose of their droppings

While walking in public spaces recently, I've noticed an odd habit of a small number of dog-walkers. As everyone knows, rather than allowing their dogs to foul the footpath, people with dogs are now expected to scoop up their dog's poop in special plastic bags and dump it in dedicated bins.

But some dog-lovers can't manage the final step of actually chucking the bagged-up ordure in the bin. They simply leave it on the ground, bagged and tied, like a sort of offering. I've seen this on Wimbledon Common and, this week, on a coastal path in beautiful west Wales. It's as if the scoopers think collecting and bagging the dog poo is enough. But, to my mind, dog turds tied up in a pink plastic bag are even worse than dog turds left in their natural state.